October 2025 Consultation Roundup

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!

The month of October has a few cycling related public consultations, as well as those for the 2026 budget. Supporters of the Danforth-Kingston 4 All campaign would be pleased with the Phase 2 consultations for Kingston Road (spurred in part by last month's ride), while Sloane Avenue and Keele Street will also be looked at. Let’s dive in!

Current conditions on Kingston Road

Car-Brain Extends Beyond Bikes!

The presence of car-brain – or motonormativity as the experts call it – in Toronto has been quite infuriating as of late. In addition to some new developments surrounding Bill 212, even transit developments and revenue tools are being affected along with a different cycling matter. Let’s look at this mayhem and how we can respond!

A Road Safety Take on Toronto’s 2024 Budget

Last year’s budget tabled by Mayor John Tory was irresponsible with his refusal to raise property taxes beyond inflation, relied on provincial and federal government funding (which didn’t materialize), and recklessly increased the police budget despite a $1.4 billion shortfall at the time. The budget shortfall situation has worsened for 2024 with the number now pegged at $1.8 billion. However, Mayor Olivia Chow and her budget chief Shelley Carroll have finally shown they are willing to take the challenge seriously.

2024 Budget Shortfall Breakdown (via City of Toronto)

2025-27 Bike Plan (and Other Important Consultations)

There are three consultations in November which Torontonians are encouraged to participate in. These include the 2025-27 Cycling Network Plan, the Micromobility Strategy, and the 2024 Budget. Let’s look at what these consultations offer, as well as some suggestions on what we should advocate.

The Bloor bike lane upgrades at Bedford Road when they were under construction in October

A Budget Worth Raising Hell About

While this year’s budget doesn’t have much new to offer from a cycling perspective, it is overall the biggest disappointment since Mayor John Tory took office in 2015 and one every Torontonian needs to raise hell about. Especially when we look at the budget’s impact on marginalized communities. Let's look at Toronto’s budget shortfalls, the police budget increase, TTC service cuts, and how you can get involved.

Your 2022 Toronto Budget Check Up

Get out your calculators, folks! It’s budget time again at Toronto city hall after having released their 2022 tax supported budgets on Thursday, January 13. One budget item which captured considerable media attention is the $25 million increase in the Toronto Police budget to $1.1 billion despite numerous groups and advocates calling to #DefundThePolice during the 2020 Black Lives Matter movement. While I’m sure Torontonians have lots of competing interest for this budget such as housing, transit, childcare, or long-term care, I will focus on the cycling perspective and refer to the Transportation Services budget notes.

January 2022 Consultation Round Up

Happy New Year!

After some much needed rest over the Christmas holidays, it’s back to the advocacy grind. Especially considering there are several public engagement opportunities relevant to Toronto’s cycling community. Two projects – Sheppard Avenue East and Douro-Wellington – have comments due soon, while two BRT projects will have next steps planned and the City of Toronto’s 2022 budget launches on January 13.

All images used (except for the BRT illustration) are from the City of Toronto

Cycling in the 2021 Toronto Budget

On Thursday, January 14, the City of Toronto released their 2021 tax supported capital and operating budgets. With budgets forming the basis of where Toronto’s priorities lie, it’s time to investigate what this budget has in store from a cycling perspective notwithstanding potential shortfalls exceeding $1 billion triggered by COVID-19. For this purpose, I will consult the Transportation Services budget notes.

The 2021 budget presentation can be viewed here

BIKE MINDS 2020 - Using Data to Effect Change

On January 30, 2020, I was honoured to join five other presenters at BIKE MINDS; a bicycle storytelling series co-founded by Matt Pinder and Michelle Kearns. The theme of the event was "Bikes and Growth" and featured the following:

• Julia Huys - A lawyer who shared her experiences cycling from London (Ontario) to St. John's (Newfoundland) with her father
• Kevin Dunal - A corporate executive who shared his story about how he and his wife became carfree
• Ryan Shissler - Cycle Toronto's Communications Lead who shared how the bicycle helped deal with his mental (and financial) health
• David Shellnut - The Biking Lawyer who reflected on his recent assault by a motorist and shared information on what to do in the event of a crash
• Agata Rudd - An environmental entrepreneur who talked about biking 5000 km in southeast asia with her partner

My story about about using data to effect change in Toronto's cycling community. I encourage you to read the recap of all speakers on Dandyhorse and view all videos here (except for Kevin Dunal's due to technical difficulties). This post includes the video of my presentation as well as the transcript.

Back to the Bike Plan Drawing Board

This Thursday, Toronto’s Infrastructure and Environment Committee will review an update to the bike plan along with this year’s proposed cycling projects. The update effectively throws the bike plan approved in 2016 out the window; instead opting for more flexible three-year plans and a city-wide cycling network to be developed over the long term. What a slap in the face! Especially when you consider Toronto had a $16 million annual cycling budget (excluding federal and provincial funding) and five cycling fatalities in 2018, yet they built only 25 kilometres of on-street cycling infrastructure since 2016?!?!

The Bloor bike lanes need to be extended west from Shaw Street (pictured) to High Park

Meet Toronto's Bike Riding Mayoral Candidate-To-Be

With Doug Ford focused on becoming Ontario’s Premier and no high-profile progressives planning to run for mayor (yet), it seems Mayor John Tory is unopposed for this October’s election. His record leaves much to be desired given he supported wasting billions on the one-stop Scarborough subway extension and rebuilding the Gardiner Expressway, as well as opposed Transform Yonge (deferral notwithstanding). Fortunately, road safety advocates and progressives will have at least one candidate they can support – Sarah Climenhaga – whom I spoke with about road safety and other issues.

Budget Balancing Blues

This year’s Toronto budget is an opportunity for Mayor John Tory and City Council to set the stage for this fall’s election with $11 billion in operating expenditures and $25.7 billion in capital projects at stake. Unfortunately, the current plan fails to account for various council-approved initiatives such as low income passes and two-hour transfers for the TTC, as well as the TransformTO climate action plan. All this disappointment to satisfy the Mayor’s desire to limit property tax hikes to inflation. Social Planning Toronto has a good write up on some of the other unfunded priorities, though I will elaborate on the budget’s impact on cycling.

Let's Get The Feds Involved

The notion of cycling infrastructure being primarily municipal responsibility is being challenged across Canada. New Brunswick’s advocates are pushing for a one metre passing rule (a.k.a. Ellen’s Law), Vélo Québec celebrates their 50th anniversary this year, Ontario is developing their second #CycleON action plan, and the British Columbia Cycling Coalition has their $1 billion for bikes petition. But what is the federal government doing to support cyclists? That is the focus on this post, including the national group called Canada Bikes and their call for a national cycling strategy.

The Left's Wake Up Call

Shortly after the last federal election, I wrote about burn out and needing to take a break from political activism (outside of cycling) to get myself in order. It does not mean being completely disengaged – attending town halls helps to stay informed and there is still a lot happening on the cycling front – but healthy political activism requires knowing when to go all out and when to lay low. After refraining from political rallies and non-cycling volunteering for all of 2016, recent events have proven to be a rude but much needed awakening for Canada’s progressives.

Reflecting from Jarvis to Bloor

What a difference four years makes! On Wednesday, May 4, Toronto city council voted overwhelmingly in favour of a bike lane pilot project on Bloor Street by a 38-3 margin. Given this is the most significant achievement yet for Toronto’s cycling community, it is time to reflect on this journey from when I joined Cycle Toronto in fall 2012, the lessons learned along the way, and what work remains to be done.

My first Cycle Toronto button from 2012

Taking Advocacy Upstream

OK! So you may have found a good cause to volunteer for and have done that for a while. During your volunteering, have you ever wondered why a problem related to your cause keeps on coming back? Have you been asking yourself what could be done to overcome that obstacle, or who needs to be approached? Are there other like-minded organizations facing the same challenges which yours could collaborate with? If you find yourself asking these questions, sounds like you are ready to take your advocacy efforts upstream, which is something I have been exploring lately.

Getting the Tools to Improve Cycling Infrastructure

Getting around has consistently been one Toronto’s most hotly debated topics. However, there is one component of transportation where Toronto has been falling behind other world class cities, and that involves cycling infrastructure.

Making Life More Affordable

While major media outlets were busy covering the federal Liberal policy convention in Montréal on February 22, 2014, there was another significant political development that day which needs to be heard. In 141 ridings across Canada, a total of 2,172 volunteers mobilized for the NDP’s first National Day of Action to promote their affordability campaign. I was part of this campaign with MP Peggy Nash and fellow members of the Parkdale High Park NDP riding association. While canvassing, I found most of those who answered the door expressed their support and signed the petition, which Peggy confirmed in an earlier blog post.

Making Government Budgets Better

By the end of January, the City of Toronto will finish this year’s budget process. It is one of the most important government processes, but also one of the least understood. To reflect on the budget process and how to improve it, I interviewed Alex Mazer, co-founder of Better Budget TO and councillor candidate for Ward 18 (http://www.alexmazer.ca).